EUROPEANS IN INDIA.
The climate of India precludes the possibility of its being a sphere for
European colonization. With the exception of the hill districts, the
intense heat during the greater part of the year makes out-door
occupation trying even to the native, and well-nigh unendurable for
Europeans--a heat uncompensated by the coolness of the night, for in the
North-West, at least, the stifling closeness of the night is more trying
than the heat of the day. If this heat lasted for only a few days, as in
Southern Australia, it might be borne, though a hindrance to work; but
in India it lasts for months, and it is succeeded by months of drenching
rain, during a great part of which the moisture and mugginess are as
unpleasant as the previous dry heat had been.
Apart from climate, there is no room for us as colonists. In India we
have not to do with rude tribes, as in America, New Zealand, and
Australia, and in a measure in Southern Africa, that cannot be said to
possess the land over which they and their fathers have long roamed, or
of which they have cultivated a very small part. We have to do with
ancient nations that have taken full possession of the land by
cultivation of the soil, and by pursuit of the arts of civilized life.
We find in India no tribes wasting away before the white stranger, but
a people growing in number under the security of our government. There
are districts in the North-West more densely peopled than any districts
in Europe occupied by an agricultural population. The emigration of
coolies to the Mauritius, to Bourbon, to the coast of South America, and
to the West Indian Islands, has done little to relieve the pressure.
Migration to unoccupied parts of Central India and Assam has been
carried out to a small extent, and it is very desirable this migration
should increase. Non-Aryan tribes occupy a large part of the mountains
and forests of Central and Eastern India. They have no wish for
accession from the people of the plains, and still less do they wish for
the entrance of Europeans. I can say nothing about the mountains of the
South, but so far as I have travelled over the sub-Himalayan range in
the North there is no place for Europeans in it, except for officials or
employers, and managers of native labour, such as tea-planters.
While India presents no sphere for European colonization, it presents an
increasingly wide field for European agency in the civil and military
services, in the departments of education, commerce, manufacture--for
instance, of cotton goods, railways, indigo, and tea. In these different
departments Europeans are in constant intercourse with natives of every
class from the highest to the lowest. There is often much pleasant and
courteous intercourse between them; but in language, habits, religion,
in almost everything in which human beings can be separated from their
fellows, they are so different that they remain to a great degree
strangers to each other, however kindly may be their mutual feeling.
English people never call India "home," though they may have lived in it
the greater part of their life. This name is always reserved for our
fatherland. (I had better say that the term English, as used in India,
includes all from Great Britain and Ireland, and to them also the term
European is mainly, though not exclusively, applied.) I have heard
persons of pure English descent, who had never been out of India, speak
of England as "home." The reservation of the word to the land from which
we have gone, indicates the fact that in India we are strangers, and
cannot cease to be strangers. Colonists in America and other lands may
make a similar reservation; but living as they do among their own
people, in a country which they expect to be the home of their
descendants, the term as applied to England is deprived of much of its
endearing force.
[Sidenote: EUROPEAN AND NATIVE INTERCOURSE.]
In the great Presidency cities, and in a less degree in other cities
throughout the country, we have a large educated class of natives, who
are well acquainted with our language and literature. They have pursued
their studies in the hope of securing good situations, and this hope is
in a large measure realized. They are found all over Northern India
occupying responsible and well-paid positions. Many persons of this
class come daily into close intercourse with Europeans in the discharge
of their duties, and have means of knowing them which no other class
possesses. The intercourse is generally courteous, in not a few cases
friendly, and they talk freely with each other on a great variety of
subjects. There is, however, not infrequently an underfeeling with
educated natives that they are not sufficiently appreciated--that they
do not get the place due to them--that they are treated as an inferior
race; and there is consequently a suspiciousness fatal to cordiality. I
am far from thinking that Europeans always treat educated natives with
the courtesy due to them. I have known instances of marked discourtesy;
but I am sure many of our people are bent on treating them with all
justice and kindness, and sometimes, at least, this friendly feeling has
not been reciprocated. Human nature being what it is, however much we
may regret, we need not wonder at the grating between parties that have
so much in common, and yet owing to that very circumstance have clashing
feelings and interests.
Many native gentlemen, some of the highest rank, cultivate European
society, and every European who has anything of the gentleman in him
treats them with the courtesy due to their position. Natives of this
class are, as a rule, most gentlemanly in their demeanour, and
intercourse with them is very pleasant.
[Sidenote: THE FAITHFULNESS OF SERVANTS.]
Between Europeans and most natives with whom they have to do, there is
such a difference of station there is no room for jealousy. To some
Europeans they stand in the relation of agents, clerks, and labourers;
to a greater number in the relation of servants. In India, as in our own
country, there is a great variety in the character of both masters and
servants. There, as here, there are hard, selfish, unreasonable masters
and mistresses, and there are undoubtedly bad, false, dishonest
servants; but I have no hesitation in giving my impression--I may say
stating my belief--that native servants are generally well treated, and
that this treatment draws forth no small degree of gratitude and
attachment. This was strikingly shown in the Mutiny period. Servants
often remain for years with the same masters, render most useful and
faithful service; their wages are continued in whole or in part during
the temporary absence of their masters from India; on their return they
are found waiting for them at the port of debarkation, and on final
departure for Europe it is not unusual for old Indians to pension those
who have been faithful to them. When I speak of faithfulness, I do not
mean that, with the exception of very rare cases, full dependence can be
placed on their truthfulness, or even on their honesty in the strict
sense of the term. It is very difficult for them to resist the
temptation to tell a lie, when a fault is to be screened or benefit to
be obtained, and there are certain understood perquisites of which they
are inclined to avail themselves in too liberal a degree; but they are
at the same time very careful to guard the property of their master
against all others, and are deeply concerned for the honour of his name.
As a rule natives, both servants and others, are treated with less
justice and kindness by the lower class of Europeans than by persons
better educated and of a higher position. There are indeed soldiers and
others who look on "niggers," as they call all natives, with contempt,
and are inclined to abuse them, so far as they are permitted, to the
full bent of their rude nature. The term "nigger" is used by some who
call themselves gentlemen. All I can say of such gentlemen is that I
wish they would speak in a manner worthy of the name.
Of late years the position of Englishmen in India has greatly changed.
By the overland route, and by the weekly postal communication, England
and India are brought near to each other in a degree which could not
have been deemed possible in former days. Persons on leave for three
months can now spend a month or five weeks with their friends in
England, and at the end of their leave be ready to resume their duties.
Every week a stream of literature, in the shape of newspapers,
periodicals, and books, is poured over every part of India, reaching
the European in the most remote part of the land. Hill stations have
become very accessible by rail, and to these Europeans betake themselves
in great numbers for the hot months. All these things give greater force
than ever to the home feeling, by strengthening home sympathies and
ties. The result is our people in India are birds of passage as they
never were before, ready to return to their own land as soon as
circumstances will allow them.
There are some advantages from this altered state of things. Many of the
early residents became, to their own deep injury, too intimate with the
people of the land. They learned their ways, and became like them in
character. It was often said, when the Mutiny broke out, that the
officers of native regiments had in former days maintained friendly
intercourse with the Sepoys, and thus secured their attachment, and that
the cessation, or at least the lessening, of this intercourse was one
great cause of the outbreak. If good resulted from it in the weakening
of national antipathy, in many cases evil resulted from it in the
deterioration of character. Many of our countrymen at an early period
formed native connections, and by doing so brought themselves down to
the level of their new friends. Some became so entangled that they gave
up all thought of returning to their own country. It must not be
supposed that all who settled down in India for life were of this
character. Some who had kept themselves aloof from all improper
connection with natives became so attached to India and to the mode of
living there, that they made it their permanent abode. A few of this
class remain, but their number is rapidly decreasing, and none are
taking their place. The persons who have thus made India their home
have often had a large circle of attached native friends.
The constant communication of Englishmen with their native land,
frequent visits to it, and the anticipation of getting away from India
at the earliest possible period, tends to lessen their interest in
Indian affairs, and weaken their sympathy with the native population.
The closer connexion with England is, however, attended with some
advantages. It can be confidently affirmed that many of our countrymen
in India are bent on promoting the good of the people with whom they
come into contact, and strive to perform their duties faithfully. We may
hope that home influence may strengthen them for the more efficient
discharge of their work, and may thus prove a benefit to the people.
[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT OF EUROPEAN SOCIETY.]
In many respects there has been a marked improvement in European
society. The small house near the large one, significantly called the
Zenana, is never seen near the houses of recent erection. Even in the
smaller stations there are places for Christian worship, where Europeans
meet on the Lord's Day, when some official reads the prayers of the
Church of England, and, if he be a zealous man, a sermon. A chaplain
pays occasional visits to these places. The attendance on public worship
is far from being what it ought to be, and we have much reason to fear
it is often very formal; but it furnishes a pleasing contrast to the
neglect which formerly prevailed. Along with this church-going there is,
no doubt, a great deal of unbelief in India. I have already said we have
in India Christians who are earnest for the honour of their Lord, and do
all they can to promote His cause; but the greater number of our people
are not, and have never been, friendly to the propagation of the
Gospel. I am afraid the unfriendliness has been increased by the
sceptical tone of much of the literature of the day. I have known
gentlemen giving to their native subordinates for perusal periodicals
and books which could only lead them to the conclusion that Christianity
was dying out in England.
There are, happily, counteracting influences. Christian as well as
sceptical literature makes its way to India, and is telling on many
minds. And then, at our larger stations, where Europeans and Eurasians
are in the greatest number, more is done for their spiritual benefit
than at any previous period. Well may every Christian heartily desire
success to all such effort, for nothing would do more to bring the
people of the land to the feet of Jesus than the prevalence of living
godliness among our own countrymen.
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